2. The person across from you has been accused of murder
The person across from you has been accused of murder. The murder happened exactly six weeks ago, on Thursday, April 27.
Person A is the detective assigned to the case. The detective will have three minutes to interview Person B to see if they have an alibi that accounts for their time on the day of the murder. (We’ll do this again with the roles reversed.)
Person A (the detective) needs to ask Person B for all the details they can remember about what they did on that day six weeks ago (Thursday, April 27). Ask them about what happened in school, out of school, who they were with, where they went, what they wore, how they got around, how long they were in certain places, etc. Make a timeline of their day. Did anything irregular happen? Can they account for their time?
Write down all the information they give you. Could they account for their time well enough to have an alibi for that day?
Serial, day 1

3. Write down all the information they give you.
Now, flip it:
Person B (the detective) needs to ask Person A for all the details they can remember about what they did on that day six weeks ago (Monday, April 27). Ask them about what happened in school, out of school, who they were with, where they went, what they wore, how they got around, how long they were in certain places, etc. Make a timeline of their day. Did anything irregular happen? Can they account for their time?
Write down all the information they give you.
Serial, day 1

4. Now, present your detective work to the other two partners in your group. Who remembered the most about their day six weeks ago? Did anyone account for their time well enough to have an alibi for that day?
Serial, day 1

5. Definitions – write these in your blue book:
Law terminology
ATTORNEY = lawyer
PROSECUTION = the lawyers working for the government. They try to prove the defendant is guilty of a crime
ALIBI = Evidence that someone was elsewhere when a crime occurred
AFFIDAVIT = A written statement that the author swears is true by taking an oath
DISBARRED = A lawyer no longer allowed to practice law

6. Definitions – write these in your blue book:
Religious terminology
HIJAB = A head wrap worn by Muslims
RAMADAN = Month-long Muslim holiday, observers usually fast during the day
MOSQUE = Muslim house of worship (like a church, synagogue or temple)

7. Definitions – write these in your blue book:
Other terms
BESMIRCHED = To damage someone’s reputation
BOTCH = To ruin a plan
DUPLICITOUS = Deceitful, to trick someone
ANECDOTE = A short, amusing story about a real person or event

8. HAE MIN LEE JAY WILDS ADNAN SYED SARAH KOENIG RABIA CHAUDRY
ASIA McCLAIN

9. At the end of the episode answer the following questions in your notebook. Give as much detail as you can, as I’ll be using the info you provide to make groups for later on:
What do you already know about reporting, podcasts or murder mystery stories?
What have you learned about this story so far? Talk about the characters and the plot.
What do you want know more about? What parts of this story or characters interest you besides just whether or not Adnan is guilty? What questions do you have?
Pass in your notebooks when you’re done.

10. With a partner, pick a quote from below
With a partner, pick a quote from below. Examine the language our narrator, Sarah Koenig, uses in the quote.
If you wanted to change the tone of the phrase, what words could you substitute?
Why do you think she uses the words that she does to describe what she’s talking about?
1) “Rabia was mostly right, though she sometimes gets a little loosey-goosey with the details” (Koenig 3).
2. “Across the parking lot [from Rabia’s office], there’s a new Pakistani restaurant, an African evangelical church, an Indian clothing shop, a convenience store. On the sidewalk outside, I found a teeny weeny bag of marijuana” (Koenig 3).
3. “Even though Adnan and Saad and their buddies were Muslims, they were also, shall we say, healthy American teenagers who were going to do what teenagers do, so long as they didn’t get caught” (Koenig 3).
4. The state portrays Adnan as “duplicitous” (Koenig 4) because Adnan’s family didn’t know that he drank and smoked. Sarah phrases it as “We all grew up with that dual personality” (4).
5. “Adnan was arrested by Baltimore City detectives. He was asleep in his bed when they showed up at his house” (Koenig 5).
6. “The second thing, which you can’t miss about Adnan, is that he has giant brown eyes like a dairy cow…Could someone who looks like that really strangle his girlfriend” (Koenig 8)?
Serial, day 2

11. At the end of the episode answer the following questions in your notebook. Give as much detail as you can, as I’ll be using the info you provide to make groups for later on:
What do you already know about reporting, podcasts or murder mystery stories?
What have you learned about this story so far? Talk about the characters and the plot.
What do you want know more about? What parts of this story or characters interest you besides just whether or not Adnan is guilty? What questions do you have?
Pass in your notebooks when you’re done.